GOP Platform Planned to Unite Rainbow of Interest Groups Behind Bush

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 14, 2000 | by Timothy W. Maier, | Michael Rust

The road may be filled with range these days, but that's the case within convention halls. Witness the GOP gathering in the Philadelphia where contentious issues, which threatened to render the GOP's "big tent" at conventions past, nowhere will be seen.

Take abortion. "Please," anguished Republicans used to say. Four years ago, Patrick Buchanan led the charge to maintain the GOP's pro-life stance at the convention and, for good measure, ensured that other social concerns of conservative Christians also were addressed. Eventual nominee Bob Dole felt obligated to tell reporters that he hadn't bothered to read the platform.

This year, prospective nominee George W. Bush won't have to bother with such caveats. Buchanan has departed for the Reform Party, which will be holding its own convention in Long Beach, Calif., a couple of weeks after the GOP conclave. The platform hearings this year have been geared to cause as little damage as possible to the candidacy of the Texas governor. The abortion plank of previous years is not being touched, but a number of other planks dealing with domestic issues are being given a "compassionate conservative" sheen, i.e., increased funds for education and some modified support for patients grappling with health maintenance organizations.

Susan Cullum, director of Republicans for Choice, reportedly was greeted warmly at the platform hearings and genially told that her group would get no camera or microphone time at the convention. The platform, one committee member tells news alert! "is boring and we plan to make it more boring." And ideological Republicans of all stripes are going along. Bush has managed the difficult task of avoiding serious alienation of any of the GOP's rainbow of interest groups; in turn, Republicans have united behind his candidacy. Recent polls show Buchanan's Reform Party campaign hovering at 2 percent, far behind Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, not to mention Bush and Vice President Al Gore.

The only potential contest of any sort at either convention will take place in Philadelphia, where Republicans will debate whether to establish four regional primaries for the 2004 election. States that effectively were shut out of this year's highly accelerated nominating process feel such a system would keep their own primaries at least somewhat relevant to the nominating process.